


And the snow it came down

by Kavi Leighanna (kleighanna)



Series: Time Has Told [2]
Category: Castle
Genre: Gen, Kid!Fic, Snow, father daughter time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-14
Updated: 2015-12-14
Packaged: 2018-05-06 15:05:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5421527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kleighanna/pseuds/Kavi%20Leighanna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ava's Christmas magic is not about ribbons; it's not about tags. It's not about packages, boxes or bags.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the snow it came down

**Author's Note:**

> Shamelessly stealing the summary from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 
> 
> Shamelessly stealing the tradition from Gilmore Girls.

She feels it in the air before it registers in her brain. There’s a crisp feel to her room, the flutter of her purple curtains in the vent by the window, a muted silence to her city that never sleeps. Ava’s eyes pop open, flare wide in excitement.

She slips out of bed carefully, aware she isn’t really supposed to be out of bed unless it’s an emergency. But if Daddy hasn’t come to get her, she knows he’ll be upset if she stayed in bed and he missed this.

She knows she has to be quiet as she pads down the stairs, into Mama and Daddy’s room. Mama’ll be upset if she wakes her up. Not that she needs Mama for this. This isn’t Mama’s tradition. It’s hers and Daddy’s, passed down from Alexis when she’d had to move out.

“Ava,” Alexis had said on one of her last nights in the loft, curled around Ava’s little body. Sister Time is sacred, even more so that night. “You have to keep Daddy’s traditions. All of the little things Daddy and I do, they’re yours, too, now.”

Ava takes that responsibility seriously.

She goes slowly, painstakingly slow. It takes _forever_ , but it’s totally worth it when she rounds the edge to Daddy’s side without Mama so much as shifting.

Daddy always says she’s better than the boys at hide and seek.

“Daddy,” she whispers, pokes at the lump of blankets. “Daddy come on.”

“Ave?”

She counts to five as she waits. Daddy wakes up slow. “Daddy we gotta go.”

This time she sees his eyes flutter, she’s watching for it, the way Daddy wakes up. “It’s still dark, sweetheart.”

She knows that. “Daddy you gotta wake up. It’s starting.”

There’s a moment, a beat, where Ava’s not convinced she’s managed to drag her father from his sleep. A moment later, his eyes pop open like hers had. She knows he feels it.

“Ava.”

“Daddy.”

He’s slow to get out of bed and Ava has to tamp down on her excitement. They can’t wake Mama.

“Okay,” he whispers, leans down to hoist her into his arms. Ava likes this better. Now she doesn’t have to worry about being quiet. That’s Daddy’s job. When they’re out in the hall he pulls the door and grins at her.

“Ready?”

Ava can’t help her giggle and she clings to Daddy as he walks them into the front hall, sets her back on her feet. They make a mess of the hall, trying to rush through finding their things, her mittens and the right hat, her thick coat and winter boots. Daddy has to run upstairs and get socks because Ava didn’t think about bringing socks down to wake up Daddy.

She’s much too excited for that.

She takes off down the hallway the minute Daddy opens the door wide enough for her to race through. She’s not supposed to, she’s not supposed to press the elevator button without Daddy right behind her either, but he’s so, so close and he doesn’t scold her so she figures this is a Special Occasion.

Which it _is._

This is something Daddy doesn’t even do with her brothers. This was Daddy’s and Alexis’ and now, now it’s hers. Alexis’ too if she wants to come, but she’s not so close anymore. Ava tries not to think about that, about Alexis not being here. Her brothers don’t always remember when Alexis was around all the time, but Ava does. She misses those days.

She lets Daddy press the button for the lobby, then reaches for his hand. He looks at her in surprise, but then his face just grins and he wraps his big hand around hers. Daddy always makes her feel so, so small, like the world can’t get her when he’s there. Mama does too, but in a different way.

Daddy would wrap her up tight, curl around her so she doesn’t get hurt. Mama would go kick some butt.

Ava bounces on her toes as the elevator starts to go down. Daddy bounces with her, just a little and Ava giggles. She’s just so, so happy, so excited. Daddy knows how it feels, this much excitement inside her chest and shaking out through her fingers.

Yet, when they hit the lobby, Ava almost racing through even with Daddy’s big steps, she pauses right at the front door. She’s always done this, taken this last moment, the way everything hums under her skin. Daddy calls it ‘anticipation’. It’s a word she stumbles over when she has to say it out loud.

“Daddy,” she whispers. It’s quiet, so quiet, the hush something Ava revels in.

“Ave,” Daddy answers and his smile is so wide, so _happy_.

They’ve missed the beginning of the snowfall by a while. There’s already a pile that covers Ava’s boot. It’s the first thing she sees. Then she looks up, way up, up beyond the apartment buildings that make New York home, the high skyline, and she can barely see from all the flakes falling down, down, down, making her blinks and grin and _laugh_.

“Daddy look at it,” she says, still quiet. It’s so pretty, Mama would say beautiful if she didn’t hate slush so much.

“I don’t get it Castle,” she always says, “It’s just going to be gross slush by the morning.”

And Daddy always turns and smiles, because Ava knows. Ava knows that it’s wonderful and beautiful and amazing and like all of her favourite things and favourite people wrapped up in softly falling flakes of frozen water – Aunt Lanie had taught her that – and this, more than the presents and the crazy tree and the decorations Daddy puts up every year even though Mama thinks it’s ‘too much and Castle you need to stop’, is what makes her Christmas.

First snow with Daddy.

The real magic.


End file.
